Bernie Sanders Answers Oligarchy Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

[00:00] we can come up with all kinds of military stuff, I'm Senator Bernie Sanders. [bright music]

[00:16] The first question, what does Bernie mean by oligarchy? Oligarchy means that you live in a nation in which a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people

[00:32] have enormous wealth and power. they not only control the economy, but they also control our political system to a large degree

[00:47] because we have a corrupt campaign finance system So bottom line, never before in American history so much power that is oligarchy.

[01:03] Why do we call Russian billionaires Oligarchs while we call US ones entrepreneurs? The guy is a crook, a mass murderer,

[01:19] and where Russia is right now. Putin and his friends cleaned up. and they became oligarchs, and everybody knows that.

[01:33] So it's easy to put a negative term on a country When it comes back home, but I think people are catching on.

[01:45] where the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%, Mr. Musk now owns more wealth

[01:58] than the bottom 53% of American households, where we do have more or less free elections, to spend all kinds of money to defeat you,

[02:13] when the oligarchs have the money. and hundreds of millions of dollars So the reason we don't call what we have an oligarch,

[02:28] and it's much easier to be negative about another country. wanna replace the entire workforce with AI.

[02:42] no one is buying your shit and we're all gonna be broke." I don't think these guys stay up nights And I don't know that they're doing long term

[02:56] AI has the potential to wipe out tens of millions of jobs one of the wealthiest guys on earth,

[03:09] To automate factories and warehouses. manufacturing jobs in America It is a massive transformation of society

[03:25] who could care less about you or my grandkids They're in it for more and more wealth And what I'm spending 24/7 now

[03:39] We are supporting a national moratorium on data centers. calling for an AI American Sovereign Wealth Fund,

[03:51] on all of the major AI companies massive job loss in this country. "Isn't there a limit to political donations?

[04:06] Well, Debbie, the answer is, As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision 15, 16 years ago,

[04:19] is that the wealthiest people in this country on elections. is a structure called Super PACs.

[04:31] Mr. Jones can't put a hundred million dollars You do it through Super PACs political organizations. So they put as much money as they want into a Super PAC,

[04:44] Elon Musk himself put $290 million into electing Trump. you got a really corrupt campaign finance system.

[04:58] that I believe in, where campaigns are about candidates actually debating So today, what's about is billionaires and their Super PACs

[05:13] running ugly 30-second ads trying to destroy opponents, we're not gonna bring back the changes unless we get rid of this disastrous

[05:27] "Is it inevitable that the US will have a revolution When we were in school,

[05:39] and Mellon and all those guys, The situation today is much more unequal It is worse than it's ever been in American history.

[05:54] Some 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. I know something about that. how they're gonna feed their kids,

[06:08] when the course of childcare is so expensive. How do you afford to go to the hospital? A lot of people have no assurance at all.

[06:21] where people on top are doing phenomenally well And I think what you're seeing just beginning to start talking about that issue.

[06:36] Do we want to live in a society where one guy, Mr. Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom half of American society? not to guarantee healthcare to all people?

[06:50] Why do kids have to go tens and tens to get a college education? spending half of their income for housing?

[07:02] so all workers are earning a decent wage, People at the bottom are seeing what's happening, The difficulty is we live at a time

[07:15] that is not gonna discuss these issues very significantly. where these guys own many of the members of the Congress. But I think things are changing when people are catching up.

[07:27] who actually works in economics or something, There are no jobs, more being eliminated by the day,

[07:39] Seriously, what does the future look like? What will it take?" that American society is in decline.

[07:52] if you're an ordinary person, go to the grocery store, People think it's just New York or LA, Price of housing is skyrocketing.

[08:07] the first home that they are gonna buy, 12 years later than their parents. They're gonna get their first home at 40.

[08:22] that doesn't guarantee healthcare Despite spending twice as much per capita Why the cost of prescription drugs so very high?

[08:35] just to get a higher education? you gotta government that is controlled by extremely wealthy and greedy people

[08:47] and could care less about the needs of working people. the worst piece of legislation in modern history, gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1%,

[09:02] off of the healthcare that they have. And the answer is really not hard. We have to organize politically

[09:16] They have unbelievable and endless amounts of money, And when people get organized, when they get mobilized,

[09:28] And we have been winning. starting with Zohran Mamdani in New York you're seeing people never ran for office in their lives

[09:41] But we have to know what's at stake And bottom line, it is two things: in the history of the United States.

[09:54] He is working for his fellow oligarchs. He lies all the time. He has gotten us into a horrible war in Iran and on and on.

[10:06] But we also have to understand how Trump gets elected. They looked at the Democratic body and say, Did you create healthcare for all?

[10:20] Did you make the schools better?" So the struggle that we as progressives are engaged in Number one, we're gonna lead the effort against Trump

[10:35] we have to transform the Democratic party completely to a party of the working class That is the way out of this disaster.

[10:51] We can do extraordinary things. We could have healthcare for all people. This is not radical thinking.

[11:06] that works for ordinary people Thanks.

[11:19] [bright music]